Image compression techniques can reduce the amount of data to be transmitted in video applications. This is often done by determining parts of the image that have stayed the same. The “motion estimation” technique is used in various video coding methods.
Motion estimation is an attempt to find the best match between a source block belonging to some frame N and a search area. The search area can be in the same frame N, or can be in a search area in a temporally displaced frame N−k.
These techniques may be computationally intensive.